| OCR Text |
Show Power & Light Firm Serves 97 of Farmers in Area With electricity now available to 97 per cent of the farms in the area it serves, Utah Power & Light Co, this week joins the nation in celebrating Farm Electrification Week. Announcement Announce-ment was made today by J. C. Littlefield, Utah Power's Salt Lake division manager. "Farm Electrification' Week marks the virtual completion of the first phase of the rural electrification elec-trification job that of getting the power to the farm," said George M. Gadsby of Salt Lake City, president of U P & L. "The task ahead," declared Mr. Gad- sby, who as president of Edison Electric Institute is spokesman for the nation's electric industry, indus-try, "is to extend the uses of electricity on the farm." The story of Utah Power's rural electrification goes back more than 30 years when a few farms near the urban centers were receiving power to light their homes and to help irrigate their lands. Since then power lines have been built into all sections sec-tions of U P & L's service area, and countless new electrically-operated, electrically-operated, labor-saving farm devices de-vices have been developed and placed within the reach of the farmer. As early as 1935 when the federal Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was created cre-ated 12,000 farms, or about 50 per cent of Utah Power's farms already had electricity available. After World War II, the com- pany snapped into its harvest rural building period of all. Since V-J day, alone, it has constructed con-structed some 1600 miles of rural extensions. Today, Utah Power & Light brings electric service to 38,000 rural customers custo-mers of which 22,500 of them are farmers. '.'It is entirely fitting now," continued Mr. Gadsby, "to celebrate cele-brate the great accomplishments of bringing electricity to the farm, and this Farm Electrification Electrifica-tion Week has been received with acclaim by the farmers themselves and their sound progressive pro-gressive organizations. To carry out the second phase of the work which lies ahead, the electric light and power companies will continue to co-operate with farm organizations, agricultural colleges, col-leges, experiment stations, and the local co-operatives to sponsor research to put electricity to work in more and more jobs for the farmer, his family, and the nation's food production." |
